Skill Checks

Today’s post is a couple of Rogue Talents that’ll be more at home on the Rogue Alternate class I’m slowly working on, but should be fun for the classic Rogue to use too. These talents are intended to be both on the Unchained Rogue and classic Rogue list of Talents.

Novel Research (ex): When doing a forgery of 25 or more pages, the time taken is divided by 10 without affecting the DC. If the forgery is used while doing research on a topic, the user must use the lower of the Knowledge or Profession modifier being used or his Linguistics modifier to detect the forgery. By taking -10 on a Linguistics(forgery) check for a document added into a library, you can portray the forgery as an overriding source, which is generally treated as more relevant information than other sources that oppose it.

Forced Overthinking (ex):
Requires 4 ranks in 3 Knowledge skills or Bardic Knowledge as a 4th level Bard
In your forgeries, you write in small kinks that make your forgeries even more convincing to people trained in the subject. A creature trained in an applicable Knowledge, Profession, or Craft skill appropriate to the topic takes the ranks in the highest ranked appropriate skill as a penalty to his Linguistics checks to detect the forgery.

Field Primer (ex) :
You can take 24 hours and 50g to write a field primer on any creature that you succeeded on a monster knowledge check on. A creature that uses this can make a monster knowledge check on this creature, even if untrained. If the user is trained, he gains a +2 circumstance bonus on that check. In either case, the user only gains information pieces that you did not gain when you made the primer. A check made with a Field Primer cannot be used to make a Field Primer.

Picture Perfect Memory (ex) :
For up to 1 day per rogue level after doing research, any knowledge checks that you make benefit from the research. If you have a slotless masterwork or magic item that gives a bonus to Knowledge checks, you continue to gain that bonus for 1 day per rogue level, even if that item is not in your hands or on your person.

So, you’re playing your lovely game, and your character asks to do something odd, let’s say round a corner while charging. You assign a tough Acrobatics check, require that there’s specific scenery to do it, and go about your game. A couple of sessions later, your players level up, and another player asks you about a feat that will let you round corners in a charge. Now what do you do?

The fallacy that comes up really often is that something has to be on your character sheet to be able to do it. Following this path, you say that your first player can no longer attempt to round a corner on a charge without the feat. At first, it sounds like a reasonable answer. It’s a fast solution to a sticky problem, and it ensures that the second player didn’t waste a feat. The first player is annoyed that this happened, and plays around it…until it happens again. Face it, there’s a ton of feats that seem like they’re balanced, and they duplicate things that characters might try with skill checks.

How about we try to think about it in a different way, though? Our guy who took that feat? Not only can he do it whenever, keeping his speed as he rounds corners is something that he’s saying that he’s really good at. What this tells me is that someone with this feat should not only succeed on what it says on the boilerplate, it should be easier for that person to do other related things. This lets both our generalist, the one who is brute forcing it with high acrobatics, and our specialist, the one with the feat have fun. Done right, both have a chance when they absolutely need to go full speed down the spiral staircase.

At the end of the day, let a feat like that have that person’s attempts say “Yes, and”, instead of telling the person without the feat “No you can’t.”

Now that I’m running a Roguey Wizard, I feel like I need a few spells to help that aim. Gilded Hand is a neat little trick that can let you get your hands on the most expensive thing in that poor sap’s pockets, if you think you can focus on a hand moving on it’s own. Keysmith’s Aid is a version of Knock meant for people who actually are skilled in lockpicking.

After casting this spell, the first Sleight of Hand check that you make to pickpocket a creature that beats a DC 20 allows the caster to grab the most valuable item in the creature’s container. Magic items that have a limited number of charges (like a wand) are assumed that they have maximum possible charges. Items surrounded by more than 3 inches of wood, 1 inch of stone, or a small layer of lead are treated as the value of the outside container. Because of the awkwardness of the movement that this spell induces, a creature being pickpocketed by you gains +5 on their Perception check. Once you successfully pickpocket an item, this spell discharges.

Special: After choosing any subdomains, you may replace the 2nd level spell of the Trickery Domain with this spell. You must make this decision when you choose the Trickery Domain, and cannot change this decision outside of Psychic Reformation, Limited Wish, Wish, or Miracle.

After touching a door, you start quickly messing with the internal parts of a series of locks. You attempt a Disable Device, Craft(locks), or Profession(locksmith) check with a +5 bonus against every lock on the surface. You can take 10 on any or all of these disable device checks, even if under pressure. If this is used against an Arcane Lock, you are instead allowed to take 20 without increasing the time taken. All locks are undone in the same action of casting the spell and touching the door. Any traps that activate by picking or unlocking the locks do not activate.

Focus: A set of tools suitable for picking or making locks. You still gain all bonuses from the item that you use.